Wieliczka Salt Mine

Medals are available for purchase in the mine’s shops!

We are one of the oldest continuously operating mines in the world . Inscribed by UNESCO on the first list of world cultural and natural heritage. It is the only mining site in the world continuously in operation from the Middle Ages to the present day, allowing to trace the development of mining technology in different historical periods. The Wieliczka mine has 9 levels reaching 327 metres into the ground. Since 1958, due to the specific microclimate of the underground excavations, a sanatorium has been established there, where upper respiratory tract diseases are treated to this day. Since the 14th century, the mines were visited by rulers and elites; today the world-famous underground tourist route, created at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, is open to all. The mine tops the list of the ‘Seven Wonders of Poland’. To pay tribute to the Holy Father, visitors can admire a statue of the Pope-Pole, one of the sculptures adorning the underground temple, in the Chapel of St Kinga 101 m below ground level. The figure of John Paul II is the only statue of a pope carved in salt in the world. The statue was made in 1999 by miners-sculptors from Wieliczka in thanksgiving for the canonisation of the miners’ patron saint.